No to Demolition!

No to Demolition!

Following the Silchester Residents’ meeting on Wednesday 9 August I am writing to confirm that the options appraisal has now been ended. All professional advice provided by external consultants, with respect to the appraisal will also be brought to an end.

It was invaluable for me to understand how the catastrophic tragedy of Grenfell Tower has affected the residents of Silchester Estate. It was unfortunate that the meeting had to be cut short, however I look forward to attending more residents’ meetings on the estate and continuing the discussion.

Cllr Kim Taylor-Smith
Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Grenfell Recovery, Housing and Property

That’s the end of the options appraisal but is that the end of the regeneration/demolition project?
Probably, for the time being. That’s some kind of result.
Though it’s not with a great sense of triumph knowing that it was the Grenfell tragedy that changed everything.
Our thoughts are with the victims of the fire.

…The Inspector has agreed to pause the examination of the LPPR to enable the Council to prepare changes to the Plan, which will be subject to public consultation in due course. Accordingly, the examination hearings are being postponed to a date to be confirmed…

We were due to hold consultation events on the Options Appraisal for Silchester East and West in July and September, with a Cabinet decision expected in November 2017. A Draft Leaseholder and Freeholder Options Policy was also due to be considered by Cabinet on 29 June, following a borough-wide consultation.

Given the catastrophic tragedy at Grenfell Tower, all work on the Options Appraisal and on the Leaseholder and Freeholder Policy has been put on hold. The study trip, weekly drop-ins, housing needs surveys, forthcoming residents’ meetings related to the Options Appraisal and the July and September consultation events will all be postponed. We will update these pages and write to Silchester residents again when we have further information.

Our new Labour MP, Emma Dent Coad, shares our position that new housing developments are not necessarily better.

Residents on the Lancaster West Estate, where Grenfell Tower now stands like a skeleton, have been watching what happened at Wornington Green with dread, while the council continues to act as PR for estate agents and developers.

People are angry. I don’t blame them. We need a complete reappraisal of council housing stock and a halt to the council’s development plans.

We need to grieve, to reflect, and put people first, today and always.

Is a Labour MP any more trustworthy than a Tory?
Labour run councils are equally responsible for regeneration policies that ignore the wishes of residents.
Let’s find out what power our new MP really has over council decisions.

Hopefully the steam is being gently let out of the London housing bubble. We’re happy to see that there could be less profits for RBKC’s prospective developer partners.
See the HomeOwners Alliance website where they compare the figures: www.hoa.org.uk

And 42 percent have been purchased by buyers from “high corruption risk” countries.

They were the apple of many a councillor’s eye, architectural porn brought to you by developers with interactive design plans and deep pockets. Many were built on land sold by London councils, boasting of providing affordable housing or flats for hard-working professionals.

Instead, from 12 of London’s highest profile new builds, some 87 percent of units so far have been sold abroad, with 42 percent of these going to buyers from high corruption risk jurisdictions, nations with a high incidence of corruption among public officials and services…